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Tag: featured

Campus entrepreneurism moves from fad to fixture for students, faculty

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Tom Still column on campus innovation: “UW-Madison remains one of the nation’s research powerhouses and was ahead of the curve in offering pathways for entrepreneurs. But even that campus has experienced a post-2000 explosion in programs for students and faculty who want to convert ideas into businesses or other ventures. Across the rest of the UW System, most four-year campuses have committed to undergraduate research, industry connections and entrepreneurship training and built support systems to match. The same goes for many of Wisconsin’s private colleges and universities, notably many in the Milwaukee region, as well as the state technical college system.”

Baldwin Pushes For New Standards In Regenerative Medicine Industry

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has introduced new legislation to create industry standards for regenerative medicine.The bill would create a public-private board to set guidelines for regenerative medical products, including those developed from stem cells. Dr. Bill Murphy, co-director of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, said the standards used currently aren’t specific to the cells and tissues used in the therapies.

Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate

Posted on
New York Times

Noted: I wasn’t convinced. So Jihae, now a professor at the University of Wisconsin, designed some experiments. She asked people to come up with new business ideas. Some were randomly assigned to start right away. Others were given five minutes to first play Minesweeper or Solitaire. Everyone submitted their ideas, and independent raters rated how original they were. The procrastinators’ ideas were 28 percent more creative.

Thanks to satellite data, scientists have finally figured out why Greenland’s ice sheet is melting

Posted on
Yahoo News

Greenland’s vast ice sheet continues to melt, and thanks to two recently-launched satellites we’re beginning to understand why it’s happening so quickly. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison believe increased cloud cover over the ice sheet itself may be to blame for up to a third of the ice melt that is occurring, a new study indicates.

Seeing stars…and more

Posted on
Isthmus

In the basement of the Villager Shopping Center on Madison’s south side, eight children are hard at work trying to pick up tiny candy insects and other familiar small sweets meant to mimic seeds. They are wielding popsicle sticks banded together like tweezers to simulate bird beaks.

Raised voices

Posted on
Isthmus

Dr. Seth Dailey knows it’s hard to underestimate the power of  voice. “Think about the number of people you make judgments about based on their voice,” says Dailey, a UW-Madison surgeon who specializes in vocal disorders. “We do it all the time. It’s part of the perceptual package. It affects how people can do their jobs with altered voice production. Vocal issues are more important than ever before in human history.”

Madison365: UW-Madison targets achievement gap with scholarships – WORT 89.9 FM

Posted on
WORT-FM

Students of color attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison find themselves in a setting that is racially homogeneous, despite efforts by the institution to attract and retain more diverse faculty and incoming classes. Madison365 contributor Alexandria Mason reported on several scholarships the university offers to provide support for students from underrepresented groups.

Wisconsin researchers land $5 million grant for study of state epilepsy patients

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Wisconsin-Madison have won a four-year, $5 million federal grant to study the brain networks of epilepsy patients. Their study, called the Epilepsy Connectome Project, will involve state-of-the-art brain imaging of about 200 adult temporal lobe epilepsy patients from across the state.

On Campus: Professor says ‘Making a Murderer’ shows justice system flaws beyond Steven Avery case

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The UW-Madison law professor who helped free Steven Avery after a wrongful conviction in the 1980s says “Making a Murderer,” the Netflix documentary about his 2007 homicide trial, illustrates problems in the criminal justice system that affect many cases beyond Avery’s.

Hunt for Ebola’s wild hideout takes off as epidemic wanes

Posted on
Nature

Quoted: Tony Goldberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is one such advocate. He no longer subscribes to the view that “we have to blanket the continent of Africa with field-deployable DNA sequencers and sample everything that crawls, flies or swims and eventually we’ll come across it. I used to think that way,” he says, “but I’m cooling off to that approach.”

The Trouble With Talking Toys

Posted on
NPR News

Quoted: “Personally, I think it’s quite problematic,” Heather Kirkorian says of the potentially misleading claims by toymakers. She studies child development at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and thinks Sosa has put her finger on a troubling trend.

Biosecurity board grapples with how to rein in risky flu studies

Posted on
Science/AAAS

BETHESDA, MARYLAND—Fuzzy definitions, deep disagreement about risks and benefits, and an unfortunate acronym: All bedeviled an expert panel as it met here last week to examine whether the United States should fund certain risky pathogen experiments. Researchers largely praised a massive, recently released risk assessment of so-called gain-of-function (GOF) research, and a draft plan for reviewing the riskiest studies. Many had concerns about the details, however, and the meeting provided little clarity on one key issue: if and when the U.S. government will decide whether to lift a now 15-month-old moratorium on a handful of U.S.-funded virology experiments.

Badgers legend Krumrie elected to College Football Hall of Fame

Posted on
WKOW TV

Tim Krumrie’s long wait is finally over. Some 24 years after becoming eligible for the game’s highest honor, the man who set the standard for defensive players at the University of Wisconsin is set to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Krumrie’s election became official Friday with the National Football Foundation’s announcement of the 16 members — 14 players and two coaches — that comprise the College Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2016.

Is filing a patent worthwhile?

Posted on
Herald Tribune

Quoted: File your patent early or opt for secrecy. Martin Ganco, associate professor of management and human resources at the Wisconsin School of Business, advises, “A small-business owner should consider filing a patent as early as they have a patentable technology. It can be in the early stages. It is a common mistake to think that a fully functioning prototype is needed to apply for a patent. In rare cases, if the patent provides weak protection, it may be better to opt for not patenting and opt instead for secrecy.”

UW involved in large study on the genetics of blindness

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

An international study involving 26 centers around the world has produced a more detailed picture of the genetic factors involved in age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. The University of Wisconsin-Madison was one of the 26 centers involved in the study which was just published in the journal Nature Genetics.

After state budget cut, energy research hub awarded $3.5 million grant

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation will provide $3.5 million to fill a budget hole and help a hub for energy research keep operating at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Funding for the Wisconsin Energy Institute had been cut in the state budget lawmakers approved this summer. Gov. Scott Walker removed the funding as part of a proposal to cut back state support for the university system and give it more autonomy.

Wisconsin Lifts Ill Baby Crane Back to Health

Posted on
Veterinary Practice News

University of Wisconsin veterinary staff have bid farewell to a young sandhill crane they saved from possible death.The crane, then a sick baby, was spotted in late July in Cherokee Marsh, a wetland in Dane County, Wis. The bird walked with difficulty, drawing the attention of an observer and a team from the Humane Society’s Four Lakes Wildlife Center.

Back to school for the public good

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

From Jeffrey Russell, Dean of Continuing Studies: A democracy requires government to function effectively, and public employees are the ones who make that happen.It’s easy to take government services for granted. Most of us don’t think twice about the clean water that comes from our faucets, the trash that’s picked up on schedule or the effort that goes into caring for our most vulnerable citizens.One key to doing these jobs well is lifelong learning. In a rapidly changing world, public employees must commit themselves to mastering the latest developments in their fields so that government runs as efficiently as possible.

Native American student applications to UW medical school increase

Posted on
Badger Herald

Since the creation of University of Wisconsin Native American Center for Health Professions, there has been a 250 percent increase in Native student applicants to UW’s medical school.

Created in 2012, Native American Center for Health Professions was designed to improve the health and wellness of Native people, Melissa Metoxen, community and academic support coordinator at the Native American Center for Health Professions, said.

The Hottest New MBA Is Not an MBA at All

Posted on
Fortune

Noted: Discussing the growth of specialized master’s programs as alternatives to an MBA, the article says, “[O]nce you get down into the lower half of the top 50 B-schools, you’ll find a program for just about any career direction, from biotechnology management at the U.C. Irvine Merage School, to global real estate at the Wisconsin School of Business[.]”

UW professor’s work on Midwest Folksongs gets Grammy nod

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The UW-Madison professor of folklore and Scandinavian Studies and Mount Horeb resident was nominated Monday morning in the category of Best Album Notes for one of the annual music awards presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. Leary’s project, “Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937-1946” was released by the University of Wisconsin Press and Dust-to-Digital in July. It includes five CDs of folk recordings made decades ago, and his book includes lyrics for all the songs and translations in more than 25 languages.

Ask Well: The Health Benefits of Meditation

Posted on
New York Times

Meditation has long been used to induce calm and physical relaxation. But research on its potential uses for treating medical problems “is still in its very early stages,” and designing trials can be challenging, said Richard J. Davidson, a neuroscientist who founded the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So it’s not surprising the scientific literature is filled with mixed findings at this point in time.”

John Hawks, guest on “Whad’ya Know?”

Posted on
Wisocnsin Public Radio and Public Radio International

John Hawks is the Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. He talks about his role in the recent discovery of Homo Naledi in the caves of South Africa!